USJFCOM: FOIA Fee Categories and Exemptions

FOIA Fee Categories and Exemptions

Fee Categories: The FOIA allows fees to be charged to certain types of requesters, but it also provides that waivers or reductions in fees be given if disclosing the information is in the public interest. Public interest is defined as information which significantly enhances the public’s knowledge of the operations and activities of the DoD. The FOIA requires that requesters be placed into one of the below categories:

Commercial. Requesters who seek information for a use or purpose that furthers their commercial, trade, or profit interest are considered commercial requesters. Commercial requesters pay all fees for search, review and duplication.

Educational. Institutions of education, including preschools, elementary or secondary schools and institutions of higher learning, qualify as educational institutions. The records must be sought in furtherance of scholarly research. Educational requesters pay only duplication fees, unless it is determined that fees are waived or reduced in the public interest. The first 100 pages are provided at no cost. (Note: Students are not considered Educational Use requesters).

Non-Commercial Scientific. A non-commercial scientific institution is operated solely for conducting scientific research. The records must be sought in furtherance of scientific research. Like educational requesters, these requesters pay only duplication fees, unless it is determined that fees are waived or reduced in the public interest. The first 100 pages are provided at no cost.

News Media. A representative of the news media is a person actively gathering news for an entity organized and operated to publish or broadcast news to the public. News media pay only duplication fees, unless it is determined that fees are waived or reduced in the public interest. Again, the first 100 pages are provided at no cost.

“Other” Requesters. Requesters who do not qualify in another category are considered “other” requesters, and normally make requests for agency records for their personal use. “Other” requesters receive two hours search, all review costs, and the first 100 pages at no cost.

Fees:

The FOIA provides for the collection of fees for:

Searches: Time spent in looking for and retrieving material, either paper or electronic files, that may be responsive to the request, including personnel hours (clerical and professional) or computer time.

Reviews: Time spent to determine if the record is releasable under legal guidelines, excluding the resolution of legal or policy issues. This includes blacking out or redaction of text.

Reproduction: Generating a copy of a requested record in the appropriate medium, for example paper or computer disk.

Category	Search Cost	Review Cost	Reproduction Cost
Educational & Scientific	None	None	First 100 pages are free. $.15 cents per page after that
Commercial & All others	Clerical: $20.00 per hr. Professional: $44.00 per hr. Executive: $ 75.00 per hr.	Clerical: $20.00 per hr. Professional: $44.00 per hr. Executive: $75.00 per hr.	$.15 cents per page
News Media	None	None	First 100 pages are free. $.15 cents per page after that

What are the FOIA exemptions?

Records (or portions of records) will be disclosed unless that disclosure harms an interest protected by a FOIA exemption. The nine FOIA exemptions are cited in the Act as 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(1) through (b)(9):

(b)(1)--records currently and properly classified in the interest of national security;

(b)(2)--records related solely to internal personnel rules and practices. There are two profiles, LOW and HIGH;

LOW – Records qualifying under the LOW (b)(2) profile are those that are trivial and housekeeping in nature for which there is no legitimate public interest or benefit to be gained by release, and it would constitute an administrative burden to process the request in order to disclose the records;
HIGH – Records qualifying under HIGH (b)(2) are those containing or constituting statutes, rules, regulations, orders, manuals, directives, instructions, and security classification guides, the release of which would allow circumvention of these records thereby substantially hindering the effective performance of a significant function of the Department of Defense;

(b)(3)--records protected by another law that specifically exempts the information from public release;
(b)(4)--trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a private source which would cause substantial competitive harm to the source if disclosed;

(b)(5)--internal records that are deliberative in nature and are part of the decision making process that contain opinions and recommendations;

(b)(6)--records which if released, would result in a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy;

(b)(7)--investigatory records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes;

(b)(8)--records for the use of any agency responsible for the regulation or supervision of financial institutions; and

(b)(9)--records containing geological and geophysical information (including maps) concerning wells.